The Six Masters
by Alphonso Rentorrier
Summary: You've seen multi-Doctor stories before, but what about a multi-MASTER story? In her latest attempt to take over the universe, Missy (the female Master) teams up with five of her past selves in her greatest plan yet, which might be too much for the Doctor to handle this time.
1. Chapter 1

The planet Temos, located in the near-center of the universe, was home to a natural tear in spacetime. Though the tear was mostly harmless – and only caused occasional magnetic storms to the planet – it could theoretically be mined for its temporal energy resources.

And at that moment, someone tried to test that theory.

The Time Lord criminal known as the Master had gone by various names throughout his many lives. Currently, in a female form, she went by "Missy" (short for "Mistress").

Though she walked across a very alien landscape, she was dressed in very human-like attire: a deep plum-colored jacket, matching ankle-length skirt, a brooch under her throat. A black boater hat adorned with fake fruit sat crooked atop her mess of black hair. More than one earthling had described her as an "evil Mary Poppins", especially when the ensemble was complete with her umbrella.

As she walked, Missy carried an odd spike-like device under her arm. It was about a meter in length and colored a dull, gunmetal grey, affixed with blinking green lights and a short, cylindrical terminal at the one end.

At last, Missy arrived at her destination. Before her lay the famous Tear of Temos. It was like a fissure in the earth, though it had no depth, but shimmered with light of a thousand colors. Small bolts of electricity crackled out of the rift as if with minds of their own.

Missy grinned a toothy, malicious smile as the tear's lights cast sharp shadows from her high cheekbones.

"Hello there, sexy," she said to the tear.

With both hands grasping the spike device, she raised it high and struck it into the spacetime rift. Larger bolts of lightning flew from the tear, and Missy's hair and coat fluttered from nonexistent wind. She had to take one hand off of her device in order to keep her hat from flying away.

When the winds and lightning had died down, Missy started inputting temporal codes on the device's terminal keyboard, giggling as she did so. When the last code had been entered, she dramatically clicked a large green button in the center, cackling like a child.

At the moment of the button's pressing, the spike's lights lit up with the same colors as the tear. Both the device and the rift glowed with such intensity that Missy had to avert her eyes. The lightning and wind kicked back up, stronger than before.

When the tear's forces had died down, Missy turned back to see that there were five new, smaller tears floating in the air. Each one of them shifted and shimmered with the same light as the main rift.

As Missy stood there admiring the spacetime rifts, they began to glow and change shape with the sound of crackling thunder. Eventually, the tears developed human-like shapes, and as the light faded, five beings stood before Missy.

And all of them were the Master; different incarnations of the same Time Lord from across time.

The first Master was the oldest incarnation there – his thirteenth body from his first set of regenerations. He had dark hair and a goatee – both streaked with grey – and was dressed in a black Nehru jacket with matching gloves.

The next incarnation looked similar to the previous Master, only without the greying in the hair and beard, and wore a black, high-collared tunic with puffy sleeves. During this time, the Master stole the body of an alien named Tremas to replace his rapidly decaying Time Lord form.

The Master next to him was taller, with a strong jaw and slicked-back hair. He wore a black leather jacket – the collar popped up – and a pair of aviator sunglasses to hide his reptilian eyes. This body once belonged to a human EMT called Bruce, until the Master possessed him during a clash with the Doctor on Earth in 1999.

The next Master was old, with white hair and dressed in a dark waistcoat and cravat, an innocent and pitiful look on his face. This incarnation was the one who ran to the end of the universe to escape the horrors of the Time War, where he used a chameleon arch to wipe his memories and transform himself into a human called "Professor Yana."

The last Master was a young man with brown hair and an impish face. He wore a black suit and tie, and Missy recalled this incarnation as the one who took over the Earth by becoming Prime Minister of England under the pseudonym "Harold Saxon."

Missy smiled as she looked down the line of her former selves, remembering the wicked times she had as each of them. The past Masters looked around the landscape and at themselves in confusion.

"What is this?" the Tremas Master demanded. "Where am I?"

"I was on Earth a second ago," the Bruce Master said in his American accent. "This isn't Earth."

The Saxon Master looked down the line. "Oh, it's you lot again. Good times."

"What do you mean 'again'?" the Old Master said. "Who are all of you?"

Missy clapped her hands together, and the other Masters turned to look at her.

"Gentlemen, Masters, attention please," she said. "I know you're all very confused right now – as you should be – but trust yourself, you've been brought here for a reason."

"What do you mean 'Masters'?" the Old Master asked, stepping forward. " _I_ am the Master."

"As am I," the Tremas Master said, stepping in front of the Old Master and earning a glare.

"We're _all_ the Master," the Saxon Master said.

"Wh-Who is the Master?" the Yana Master asked as he cowered. "Will someone please tell me what's going on? Is it the Futurekind? Have they done something?"

Missy sighed. "Oh, right. I forgot that he has no memories of being the Master. Will one of you—"

"Got it." The Saxon Master reached into the Yana Master's waistcoat and produced a fob watch on a chain.

"What are you doing?" the Yana Master asked. "Th-That watch doesn't work, I can assure—"

The Yana Master shut up when the Saxon Master pried open the watch. Immediately, the white-haired Master's face was bombarded with golden light, and his expression changed from scared to cold and menacing.

He snatched the watch from the Saxon Master as his face contorted into a snarl.

He whispered, "I…am…the Mast—"

"Yes, yes," Missy interrupted, "you're the Master, he's the Master, I'm the Master. Glad we've gotten introductions over with, Prof."

The other Masters looked at her with disbelief. The Tremas Master laughed, a loud, booming cackle.

"You?" he said. "You are my future self?"

"A woman?" the Yana Master snarled. "That cannot be."

"I concur," the Bruce Master said.

"I've gone through worse phases," the Saxon Master said, tilting his head. "And she did know about Professor Yana's memories."

"That means nothing," the Old Master said. "I have a hard enough time believing any of you are my future selves, but I can scarcely believe a future where I become a woman—"

As the Old Master went on his tirade, Missy stepped over to the spike device and tapped on it four times. _Tap-tap-tap-tap_ , mimicking the rhythmic drumming that had plagued the Master's head for all of his lives. That maddening, ever-present drumming.

Missy continued drumming her fingers, and the other Masters flinched at the sound. A few of them grabbed at their ears, and even Missy showed subtle signs of fear.

"The drums…" the Yana Master said.

"Always with the drums," the Tremas Master said.

"Always there," the Old Master said.

"Never leaving," the Bruce Master said.

"One, two, three, four," the Saxon Master said.

Missy stopped drumming and looked over her past forms, whom looked at one another as if in sudden realization.

"Well, now that we've all been assured that we're the same person," Missy said, "let's get down to business."

"Well I certainly hope it's important enough," the Saxon Master said, grabbing his suit lapels. "I was right in the middle of my campaign for British Prime Minister."

"And I still have to steal the Doctor's body," the Bruce Master said.

"And _this_ is why you're all here," Missy said. "Each and every one of you has tried to take over the universe at some point, and all of you have failed because one certain man has stuck his cute little nose into your business every time."

All of the Masters developed the same grimace on their faces.

"The Doctor," they snarled in unison.

Missy sneered. "Bingo. And so, if the greatest mind in the known universe cannot concoct a plan to eliminate his rival and take over the universe, surely six versions of that mind can."

"Well I believe there's only one course of action here," the Yana Master said. "We have to eliminate the Doctor, once and for all."

"Easier said than done," the Tremas Master said.

"I truly must have gone mad at some point in the future," the Old Master spat. "The Doctor is the most worthy adversary I have ever faced. Without him, the universe would just be…"

"Dull," the Saxon Master finished. "For all of eternity." He looked over to the Old Master, and the two shared a knowing nod.

"I agree the Doctor must live," the Bruce Master said. "But only because I still need his body to gain his regenerations."

The Yana Master snarled at him. "Idiot. You obviously gain your regenerations back in the future, else half of us wouldn't be here."

"But I need them _now_ ," the Bruce Master said. "This body is already starting to deteriorate, and I cannot wait any longer."

"I can't blame him," the Old Master said. "If I were him, I'd want out of that body as soon as possible."

The Bruce Master turned to him. Though his eyes were hidden by sunglasses, they still stared daggers at the Old Master.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" he asked. "I stole this body from Earth."

"Oh, and it shows," the Old Master said. "I mean, it's so brutish. And what's that you're wearing? A leather jacket and sunglasses? Hardly sophisticated."

"Well at least I realized the error of that stupid beard," the Bruce Master said, pointing a finger.

"The beard is _not_ stupid!" the Tremas Master said, stepping in front of the Bruce Master's finger.

"It's a little stupid," the Saxon Master said.

The Yana Master gave him a smack to the back of his head. The younger Master yelped in pain.

"Respect the classics," the Yana Master scolded. "Lord, I can't believe _you're_ who I become. You look like a child in that suit."

The Saxon Master held his mouth agape in shock as he ran his hands down the front of the suit. "How dare you! I'm going to be Prime Minister of England! At least I'm going places in this regeneration, you doddering old fool who was so afraid of the Time War that he became a human!"

And thus, an argument broke out among the Masters. The Old Master bickered with the Saxon Master, who was already being berated by the Yana Master. The Bruce Master pointed fingers at the Tremas Master while the Old Master attempted to defend his beard.

After a few moments of this, Missy rolled her eyes, stuck two fingers in her mouth, and whistled. The loud, shrill noise filled the air, and immediately the other Masters shut up and looked at her.

"Now boys, you can measure them later," Missy said. "But I didn't bring you all here for a squabble with yourselves. No one is leaving this planet until we come up with a good enough plan to get rid of the Doctor and take over the universe."

The Masters stood there, thinking in silence, the only sound a distant crackling of thunder. Many of the Masters crossed their arms in contemplation. The Yana Master scowled at the grown, while the Old Master steepled his fingers underneath his nose. The Bruce Master stared straight forward, his blank sunglasses making him look all the more enigmatic.

Missy blew air through her mouth. "Did anyone happen to bring tea?" she asked. "I could use a spot right about now."

The other Masters shook their heads. The Saxon Master patted himself down to make sure, but came up empty and shrugging.

Missy sighed and looked to the sky. "Typical me," she mused.


	2. Chapter 2

From within the TARDIS, the Doctor pulled down on a lever, and the center column rose and fell as the time machine dematerialised with a whirring, groaning sound.

"So, Clara," he said, "what have we learned on this adventure?" His Scottish voice had taken on the mannerisms of a scolding schoolteacher.

Clara rolled her eyes. "Don't correct Edgar Allen Poe on his grammar," she recited.

The Doctor chuckled. "Correct, Ms. Oswald."

"Well I'm sorry," Clara said defensively. "But how was I supposed to know that he had a black hole stuck inside his brain?"

"If you hadn't angered him, we wouldn't have…"

The Doctor's voice trailed off as something beeped. He wheeled one of the console's screens around to him, where something was flashing and beeping on the monitor.

"What is it?" Clara asked, walking over to him.

"An incoming transmission," the Doctor said.

Clara wrinkled her brow. "Don't most people use the phone? What is this, _Star Trek_ now?"

"Some people aren't as old-fashioned as me," the Doctor said.

He clicked a button on the console and opened the message.

Then the Doctor froze. His eyes, wide open, focused on the message before him as his mouth hung open.

"Doctor?" Clara asked. "Doctor, what is it?"

She looked at the message on the screen. There were no words, only a series of concentric circles and dots. Though she couldn't read the alien language, she recognized it well enough.

"It's Gallifreyan," Clara said.

"The language of my people," the Doctor said, nearly a whisper.

Just then, the Doctor's hands flew about the console, clicking buttons as his fingers blurred with motion.

"Well what does it say?" Clara asked.

"It's a message of distress," the Doctor said. "Whoever sent this is in serious trouble by the sound of it. They sent coordinates to their location."

"And we're just going to go there?" Clara asked. "What if it's a trap?"

"This could be a chance to find out where Gallifrey is, Clara," the Doctor said, pulling levers. "And besides, if it's a trap, I can get us out of it."

With one last lever, the TARDIS gave a violent shudder, and the central column stopped. The time machine had landed.

The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets and marched toward the door. He put his hand on the handle and looked back at his companion.

"Come along, Clara," he said. "We've got a Time Lord to save."

With a bit of reluctance, Clara went to the Doctor's side as the Time Lord pushed the doors open. The two exited together.

And immediately, they froze in their tracks.

"Oh no!" Missy said. "Looks like I lied! I'm not in trouble after all! Well, since you're here, Doctor…"

The Doctor's eyes went wide with fear as he looked at the six Time Lords before him. All six of them were different incarnations of the Master. Missy stood in the center of them, looking all too pleased with herself, and flanked by five other male Masters: the Master's thirteenth incarnation, the incarnation he had stolen from Tremas, the one who he had fought on Earth in 1999, the one who had called himself "Professor Yana", and the one who had become Prime Minister of England.

Many of the Masters held weapons pointed at the Doctor and Clara. The Old and Tremas Masters held different versions of their wand-like tissue compression eliminator, while the Saxon Master wielded the ever-deadly laser screwdriver. The Yana Master had his arms crossed, and the Bruce Master remained still and stoic, though the Doctor knew of the hidden powers that incarnation held.

The Doctor's pupils twitched around nervously. "Missy?" he asked. "The…Master? Master _s_? But…how?"

"At a loss for words, Doctor?" Missy taunted. "After centuries of trying, I've finally done it."

" _This_ is the Doctor now?" the Saxon Master asked. "Rather old, isn't he?"

"I like it," the Old Master said.

"Me too," the Tremas Master said. "It's like a classic."

"Doctor?" Clara asked. "Who are they?"

The Doctor snapped out of his trance long enough to answer his companion. "You know Missy?"

Clara nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, these are all her," the Doctor said with a wide sweep of his arms.

Clara looked at all of the Masters' faces, one after the other. "All of them?"

The Doctor nodded.

"She used to be a man?" She shot the Doctor a look. "Not judging."

"We're not too pleased about it either," the Bruce Master said. Missy hissed at him.

"So, it seems like you've finally managed to get yourself together," the Doctor said. "I can't believe to imagine the havoc this has caused on the timestream."

"Well, you've teamed up with multiple versions of yourself," Missy said, "so I figured I'd give it a go. Gotta say, a lot more bickering than I thought."

"You get used to it," the Doctor said, his thick eyebrows knitting into a serious expression. "Look, whatever you've got planned, forget it. When I look down the line of you, you know what I see?"

He paused for dramatic effect.

"Failure. No matter what face you've worn, no matter what form you've assumed, I have always defeated you. The Auton invasion: Stopped. The team-up with the Rani: Thwarted. The body-switching, the takeover of Earth, the Heaven scheme. I've always been there to end whatever you've planned, and this time will be no exception. I don't care if there's one of you or a thousand, the Master will never rule the universe."

Silence. Clara gawked at the Doctor as the speech finished and let the quiet sink in. The Masters stared at him as well, but their expressions were difficult to read.

Then, Missy yawned rather dramatically.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "Were you finished? Because I'm just so darn _BORED_!"

As Missy screamed that last word, the Saxon Master activated his laser screwdriver. A harsh buzzing rang out, and the Doctor's body froze in a contorted expression. His eyes bugged out as his mouth set in a tooth-gritted grimace, sweat running down his wrinkled face.

As Clara called the Doctor's name in shock, the Bruce Master opened his mouth and released a stream of mucus-like string at Clara. The human girl screamed in disgust as the slime wrapped up her torso in a cocoon.

With a jerk of his head, the Bruce Master pulled the tied-up Clara towards him. The Doctor watched in silent horror as the Tremas and Bruce Masters grabbed Clara, while behind them, the Yana Master reached for something at his arm – a vortex manipulator!

In a flash of light, Clara and the three Masters were gone, leaving only a faint crackle of electricity in their wake.

Missy nodded to the Saxon Master, still holding his laser screwdriver tight with a look of malicious glee on his face.

"Alright, Junior," she said. "That's enough."

Pouting, the Saxon Master released his grip on the laser screwdriver. The Doctor's body loosened, and he panted as sweat dripped off his face.

"Cl…Clara…" he breathed. He looked up underneath his eyebrows, fixing the Masters with a cold glare. "Where did you take her?"

"Not here, obviously," Missy said.

"But why did you have to drag her into this?" the Doctor asked. "It's me you're after."

"Yes," the Old Master said. "But it seems that every time you and your companions are together, they manage to help you in stopping our plans. So we simply…eliminated her from the equation." He let out a low, sinister chuckle.

"Now." The Saxon Master pointed to the police box time machine with his screwdriver. "Get in the TARDIS."

The Doctor regarded him with an unblinking gaze. "And if I refuse?"

"You do realize we can still kill Clara any time we want, right?" Missy said. "And who knows what else we're capable of? I mean, you've seen what one Master temper tantrum can do, but six?"

The Doctor was silent, staring at the three Masters, never blinking. The only sound was the distant rumbling of thunder, which only served to accentuate the stormy look on the Doctor's face.

"Fine," he said, venom in his voice.

Missy smiled. "Good boy."

The glare never leaving his face, the Doctor opened the doors to the TARDIS and walked inside, prodded along the way by the Saxon Master's laser screwdriver. Missy and the Old Master followed close behind as the four of them entered the bigger-than-the-outside interior.

As Missy closed the doors, the Doctor asked, "You have your own forms of time travel, so why do you need the TARDIS? And why do you need me?"

"We want you to witness this momentous occasion," the Old Master said.

"And as for the TARDIS," the Saxon Master said. "Well, we're trying to get some place very difficult to get to."

The Doctor's brow furrowed, and then his eyes lit up in realization.

"Gallifrey."

Missy winked at him. "Ten points to Gryffindor."

As Missy wandered over to the TARDIS console, she explained her plan.

"You see, in order for us to take over the universe, we need to eliminate the one major threat to our plan, the one constant snag in the operation: You, dear Doctor. So, using the TARDIS's telepathic interface, we're going back in time to Gallifrey to smother you in your crib, before you can become the man who is destined to eternally thwart us."

She paused in her speech, and the Doctor looked at her with absolute horror, though he did not say anything. The TARDIS interior settled with an uncomfortable silence as Missy stared into the glowing central column.

"At least," she continued, "that's the plan I told the other Masters."

The Old and Saxon Masters exchanged a confused look. Even the Doctor's disgusted face looked bewildered at Missy's statement.

Missy turned around to face the other three, her expression serious.

"There's a reason I chose you two to accompany me on this phase of the plan," Missy said, looking at the other two Masters. "You see, throughout my lives, I've gone through different phases regarding my feelings for the Doctor. And in these three incarnations, I considered the Doctor a friend."

The Old and Saxon Masters regarded Missy with a longing look, as if recalling fond memories.

"And right now, I could really use that friend again." She looked at the Doctor with sad eyes. "So that's why instead of killing him, we're going to stop us from ever becoming enemies in the first place. We're going to stop the event that shattered our lives forever."

The other Masters looked at her shocked, knowing gazes. The Doctor's brow knitted.

"The Untempered Schism," the Old Master said.

"The drums," the Saxon Master said.

Missy nodded gravely as she walked over to the console's telepathic interface.

Before she reached it, the Doctor grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"Missy, listen to me," he said. "I know your hearts are in the right place, but you can't just change something as drastic as this. You don't know what catastrophic ramifications this could have for the universe."

Missy stared at him. "For you, I'd risk it."

She tried to move away, but the Doctor's grip was too strong. Missy nodded to the Saxon Master, who activated his laser screwdriver again. The Doctor once again writhed in pain and released Missy.

She took this opportunity to make it to the telepathic circuits. She stuck her fingers into the glowing, porous material, closed her eyes, and breathed deeply.

As the Saxon Master released his control on the laser screwdriver, the Doctor looked up to see the TARDIS's central column moving as a groaning, wheezing noise filled the room.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, what exactly are you up to?" Clara asked.

Still tied up by slime, Clara sat on the planet Temos, with the spacetime tear a few meters from her.

At the sound of her question, her three Master captors turned to face her. They all looked either confused or annoyed.

"What?" the Bruce Master asked.

"I mean, aren't bad guys supposed to tell their captives their plans?" Clara said.

"That is idiotic," the Bruce Master said.

"Indeed," the Tremas Master said. "The Master isn't just some common crook. The Master—"

"Oh please, we've all done it," the Yana Master interrupted, sounding irritated. "And we're just going to kill her later, so I don't see the harm in stroking our egos a bit."

The Tremas Master looked to the Bruce Master. "We would be sharing our brilliance with a lower lifeform," he said.

The Bruce Master was silent and stonefaced as he stared at his bearded counterpart.

"Very well." The Bruce Master turned to Clara. "As we speak, our counterparts have kidnapped the Doctor and his TARDIS and have gone back to the Doctor's childhood on Gallifrey to kill him as a child."

"With the Doctor never existing," the Tremas Master explained, "no one would stand in our way of complete universal domination."

The thought made Clara's insides churn. "But why did they need to bring the Doctor with them?"

"To make him watch his own death," the Yana Master said. He smiled, and it was the first time that Clara had seen that incarnation of the Master smile. It was a sight that chilled her blood.

"I can't even believe you'd do something like this," she said. "I thought you and the Doctor were friends."

"We are _not_ friends," the Bruce Master barked, causing Clara to jump. "At one point I may have consider the Doctor a brother, but he has long since betrayed that title."

"You believe you have gripes now," the Yana Master said. "But the Doctor's greatest betrayal is yet to come."

The Bruce and Tremas Masters turned to him with inquisitive looks.

"You always seem as though you've just come out of some great tragedy," the Tremas Master said. "I can see it in the eyes. So tell me: What happens to us?"

The Yana Master looked at his younger counterpart. Clara recognized the look; it was the same one the Doctor had whenever he was about to talk about the Time War.

"I have witnessed horrors beyond what you could possibly imagine," he said. "Horrors so great that I ran and took solace in amnesia. But the greatest horror of them all was the Doctor. He…"

His voice trailed off as he averted his gaze to the floor. The only thing that broke the silence was a rumbling of thunder and a crackle of lightning up above.

"Oh, what is taking them so long?" the Yana Master said with an impatient tap of his foot. He checked his pocket watch, only to shake his head in disgust at it. "If they've already killed the Doctor, history should have been rewritten by now."

"Perhaps there's a delay in the temporal feedback," the Tremas Master said.

"Perhaps…" the Yana Master grumbled.

Suddenly, the tear made a loud, explosion-like noise, accompanied with flashing lights and forking lightning escaping its maw. The Masters and Clara jumped and looked back at the rift in shock.

"Oh for God's sake!" the Yana Master said. "What now?"

Muttering to himself, he stalked off towards the tear. The Tremas Master started after him, but the Bruce Master pulled him back.

As the Yana Master fiddled with the spike device sticking out from the tear, the Bruce Master pulled the Tremas Master aside and whispered to him. Clara trained her ear to listen over the thunder of the tear.

"Listen, I need those regenerations now," the Bruce Master said. "I'm not sure how much longer this body can withstand. And I know your stolen body has its limits, too. So I propose a plan. Since this Master already has a new set of regenerations, we'll steal them. I'll split them with you, 50/50. I already have a plan in motion to steal the Doctor's body back in 1999, but I can alter it for the circumstances. All we need is to get that vortex manipulator off of him at the next chance we get."

The Tremas Master shot a glance at Clara. She pretended like she wasn't evesdropping on them.

"But what about her?" he asked. "We are supposed to be guarding her, after all."

"The Doctor has no idea where our base of operations is," the Bruce Master said. "And besides, she's on an alien planet with no way off. Chances are, she'll die with our without us here."

The Tremas Master bit his lip and stared over at the Yana Master, who was still at work pounding on the spike.

He turned back to the Bruce Master. "Alright," he said. "You've got a plan."

The Bruce Master smiled, and the two walked back over to Clara as the Yana Master made his way back.

As soon as the older Master returned – grumbling about how temperamental temporal tears are – Clara said, "Oi, Grandpa. These two are planning to betray you."

The Yana Master furrowed his brow at her. "What?"

"The girl obviously lies," the Bruce Master said.

"It's true, though," Clara said. "They were just talking about how they want to steal your regenerations for themselves. Now, you're a better judge of yourself than I am, so you tell me: Does that sound like something you would plan?"

The Yana Master stared at her, his eyes darting as if trying to read her face. The Bruce and Tremas Masters looked over their older incarnation with subtle looks of nervousness about them.

"My god, the girl's right," the Yana Master said. He turned to the other two Masters and said, "Are you two trying to betray me?"

"And why would we ever do such a thing?" the Tremas Master asked.

"Because it's _exactly_ the kind of thing I would do," the Yana Master said. "If I were an impatient young man in a decaying body, I'd betray my own self for a regeneration."

"The human speaks lies," the Bruce Master said. "Besides, it's the Doctor's body I need."

"Yes." The Yana Master stepped closer to the Bruce Master. "But why would I continue a plan to try and kidnap the Doctor when I have a perfectly functioning Time Lord body right in front of me?"

"Do not make accusations this close to me, old man." The Bruce Master whipped off his sunglasses, revealing his snake-like eyes, glowing emerald green. "You obviously forget how dangerous this body can be."

"Is that a threat against yourself?" the Yana Master asked.

"Step any closer and you will find out."

Before the Yana Master could retort, the Tremas Master sprung to action, grabbing the Yana Master around the neck and torso. The older Master tried to pry himself free, but the younger Master was stronger.

"Now!" the Tremas Master yelled to the Bruce Master. "The vortex manipulator!"

The Bruce Master grabbed at the vortex manipulator at the Yana Master's wrist, but the older Master fought back. The two grappled, evenly matched, while the Yana Master still tried to throw off the Tremas Master.

Clara watched this scene unfurl. The Tremas Master's grip was strong, while the Bruce Master attacked like a machine: stiff-armed, yet strong and persistent. The Yana Master defended himself like a trapped animal, fending off the Bruce Master with snarls and feral swipes.

Just then, a thunderous _BOOM_ shook the planet. The Masters froze in their struggle, and Clara gasped in fear.

The air exploded with electricity, lightning streaking across the alien sky. Five rifts opened up in the air, similar to the Tear of Temos only smaller. The Masters' eyes widened in fear as they watched the rifts split open, and Clara stared with the same fearful wonder

Then, the rifts started to grow and shift. Their tear-like forms elongated into boxy shapes, glowing and crackling with lightning through the whole transformation.

Within a moment, the five rifts had been replaced with five versions of the TARDIS, their blue edges fizzling with electricity.

Clara stared at the five police boxes while silently mouthing, "What?"

She looked to the Masters, who each had a different reaction to the TARDISes on their faces. The Tremas Master looked annoyed, the Bruce Master angry, while the Yana Master's face showed absolute fear.

The doors to the police boxes creaked open in unison, and five different versions of the Doctor stepped out of them: a silver-haired Doctor in a velvet smoking jacket, a young Doctor with blonde hair in an Edwardian cricketer's uniform, a long-haired Doctor in Victorian garb, another old Doctor with a goatee in a leather jacket, and a familiar-looking Doctor in a pinstriped brown suit.

The Doctors looked inquisitively at the TARDISes and at each other.

"Well, if this isn't a strange turn of events," the Third Doctor said, looking over the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS.

"I'll say," the Eighth Doctor said, sticking his hands in his coat pockets and rocking on his heels. "I don't even remember leaving."

The Tenth Doctor regarded the War Doctor with a weary, angry glare. "What is he doing here?"

The War Doctor looked back at him with a combination of confusion and remorse. "I'm just as confused as you are, sir."

The Masters glared at the Doctors and said in unison, "Doctor!"

The Doctors all whipped around to face the other three Time Lords. "Master!" they replied in unison.

Then, everything happened at once before Clara's eyes.

The Tremas Master pulled out his TCE and aimed it at the Doctors, but the Tenth Doctor counteracted by activating his sonic screwdriver. The sonic device overloaded the Master's weapon as he was about to fire, exploding it in a shower of sparks and sending the evil Time Lord to the ground.

The Third Doctor sprung to action with agility greater than his elderly appearance portrayed. He attacked the Bruce Master with a chop to the neck – shouting "Hai!" as he did so – and the Master crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

The Fifth Doctor was the last to react, and he simply threw a cricket ball – produced from inside his jacket – at the Yana Master. The heavy ball made contact with the Master's head with an audible _THUNK_ , and he fell into unconsciousness.

With the Masters dealt with, the Doctors relaxed. The Tenth Doctor sheathed his sonic screwdriver, and the Third Doctor straightened out his velvet jacket. The War Doctor simply stood there with his hands folded behind his back, looking over everything with a forlorn expression, as if he were lost.

"Well," the Fifth Doctor said, "this day certainly continues to be exciting."

"Indeed." The Third Doctor looked about the sky, which was still pulsing with lightning. "Where exactly are we this time?"

"Temos, by the looks of it," the Tenth Doctor said. He squinted, and then pulled out a pair of black-rimmed glasses and put them on. "Looks different, though. Stormier this time around."

"Do those glasses even _do_ anything?" the Fifth Doctor asked.

Sheepishly, the Tenth Doctor removed the spectacles. "Shut up," he said.

Clara loudly cleared her throat, and the five Doctors turned their attention to the captive human.

"Oh!" the Eighth Doctor said. "Sorry, miss."

He went to her and ran his sonic screwdriver along the front of the slimy restraints. Somehow, the slime split open, and Clara was free.

The long-haired Doctor helped her to her feet. "There you go. Free as a bird."

"Who are you?" the Third Doctor asked her. "What are you doing on Temos?"

"My name's Clara," she said. "I'm the Doctor's companion."

"Oh yeah?" the Tenth Doctor said, smiling. "Well, I'll be looking forward to travelling with you some day, Miss Clara."

"Oh, you charmer," the Eighth Doctor chuckled, folding his arms.

"Oi!" the Tenth Doctor said. "I was just saying hello!"

"There's something sticking out of the tear," the War Doctor said.

The other Doctors and Clara turned to see the warrior Doctor pointing back at the tear, where the spike device continued to blink with the light of the spacetime rift.

"That device must be how the Master brought different versions of himself together," the Third Doctor said. Sonic screwdriver already in hand, he bounded off towards the tear. "I'll check it out."

"I'll go with you," the War Doctor said, following. "Er, I mean, myself."

As the two older Doctors approached the tear, the Fifth, Eighth, and Tenth Doctors turned back to Clara.

"So how did you wind up on Temos, anyway?" the Fifth Doctor asked her.

"The Masters brought me here," she explained. "Held me hostage. Said they were going to kill me later."

"Of course," the Eigth Doctor said in disgust. "The Master can never leave the companions out of his plans, can he?"

"What you encountered were only half the Masters, though," Clara said. "The other half have gone back in time to…kill you as a baby." She had a hard time even speaking the words.

The Tenth Doctor narrowed his eyes at Clara. "What?"

"Well, we're still here," the Fifth Doctor said. "Perhaps something happened."

"Or there's just a delay in the temporal feedback," the Eighth Doctor said.

As the three Doctors pondered their thoughts, the Third and War Doctors returned from the tear, sonic screwdrivers in hands.

"Well, we've shut down the device," the Third Doctor said. "But there's a greater problem."

"The Master indeed used the tear to bring together is multiple selves," the War Doctor explained. "However, in doing so, he created five new tears in spacetime. That's where we came from."

" _Five_ tears?" the Tenth Doctor asked, his face in great shock. "The universe was only _just_ holding together with _one_. It'll tear itself apart with five."

"Six, counting the prime tear," the Fifth Doctor said.

"And that's not all," the Eigth Doctor added. "Apparently, more Masters have gone back in time to kill us as a baby."

The Third Doctor touched at his jacket, as if to make sure he was real.

"Clearly we're still here," he said.

"Which means we still have time to stop this plan from unfurling any further," the War Doctor said.

A loud crack of thunder erupted in the sky, causing the Doctors and Clara to jump. Electricity crackled in random places in the air, and the wind started to kick up.

"Then we'd better hurry," Clara said. "I've only met the Master once before, but I know that once she sets her mind to something, nothing will stop her."

The five Doctors all whipped around to face Clara with confused, startled looks on their faces.

" _She_?" they all asked.

"It's a long story," Clara said as she walked towards the TARDISes.


	4. Chapter 4

The TARDIS landed with a bumpy finish.

Missy took her fingers out of the telepathic interface and looked to the door.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" she said. "Our destiny awaits."

The Old Master gestured towards the door. "Ladies first."

Missy flashed a smile at him. "I always liked being you." She looked to the Doctor. "Come along, dear. You're about to witness history."

The Doctor scowled at her as the Saxon Master prodded his back with the laser screwdriver.

"Is this what you really want?" he asked.

Missy's face softened as she looked at him. "It's what I've always wanted. Now come along. Don't doddle."

She pulled open the TARDIS doors and exited, followed closely by the Old Master, the Doctor, and finally the Saxon Master.

There was no mistaking it, the Doctor thought. This was Gallifrey, just as he remembered it. From the orange night sky to the metallic smell to the air, it brought the Doctor back to all the good memories he had as a child. But, it also brought back bad memories, like the Time War and abandoning his family.

The foursome stood at the edge of a rocky ledge, overlooking a sandy landscape. Glowing torches were set up in a large ring filled with formally dressed Time Lords, and at one end of the circle sat one of the few things that terrified the Doctor to his very core: the Untempered Schism.

Missy and the other two Masters shuddered upon viewing it. They looked to be frozen in place with fear, but they snapped out of it when they looked off a few meters from the torch ring.

The Doctor followed their gaze to see a smaller group of Time Lords leading a child towards the Schism. Even from up here, the Doctor recognized the young Master, and he could see the anxious, fearful look on his face.

The Doctor remembered he had the same look on his face as a child, before he ran from the Schism.

"Alright, boys," Missy said, reaching into her pocket. "Let's do this."

She pulled out her vaporising PDA and aimed it at the schism. The Old and Saxon Masters did the same with the TCE and laser screwdriver, respectively.

"On my command," the Old Master said.

"On _my_ command," Missy corrected.

The Old Master shot her a quick glare, but he nodded his head and took aim. The Doctor looked back at the Young Master. He was getting closer by the second.

"Ready…" Missy said.

The other Masters tightened their grip on their weapons.

The Doctor's mind raced. _A plan_ , he thought. _Gotta have a plan. Gotta do something._

"Aim…" Missy's PDA hummed to life.

The Young Master gained closer to the Schism.

 _Think, Doctor, think! Put that big brain of yours to use!_

"You watching, Doctor?" Missy said with a grin. "'Cause you're not gonna want to miss—"

Just then, the air filled with a series of wheezing, groaning noises. Unconsciously, the comforting sound of the TARDIS's engine brought a smile to the Doctor's lips.

The noise had an opposite effect on the Masters, however. The Old Master rolled his eyes and groaned, while the Saxon Master gritted his teeth in anger. Missy's eyes went wide as her mouth hung open.

"No…" she breathed. Her eyes darted back and forth between the Schism and the approaching Young Master. "No, no, no…"

The Doctor and Masters looked back at five more TARDISes blinked into existence alongside the one already there. When the five police boxes had fully materialised, all of their doors opened in unison, and five past versions of the Doctor stepped out.

"Master, no!" they each called, reaching out a cautionary hand.

"Oh, of course!" the Saxon Master bellowed, annoyed. "It's always _him!_ "

"Can't I ever plan something universe-threatening without _you_ getting involved?" the Old Master yelled at the Doctors.

"Right?" the Saxon Master said. "It's _so_ annoying!"

Clara stepped out of the TARDIS belonging to the Third Doctor. Her Doctor – the Twelfth Doctor – went to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said. "I'm a big girl. I can hold my own."

The Doctor smiled at her, a rare sight. Then, he noticed three more figures stepping out from the TARDISes: the Tremas, Bruce, and Yana Masters.

The Tremas Master looked to the sky and sniffed. "This day…it seems familiar."

The Bruce Masters looked over the ledge and pointed. "Over there. It's…" He froze, and his finger wavered. "The Untempered Schism…"

"This isn't the Doctor's childhood," the Yana Master said. "This is the day I peered into the Schism!" He pointed an accusatory finger at the Old, Saxon, and Missy Masters. "You were never planning on killing the Doctor at all, were you?"

Missy was uncharacteristically silent as she stared down over the ledge. The Young Master was almost to the circle.

"Clearly I have regenerated into an idiot to ever believe in such a plan," the Old Master said. "A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about."

"I cannot believe the amount of betrayal amongst myselves!" the Yana Master said, throwing his hands into the air. "Is there no honor amongst the Master?"

"It doesn't matter now," the Tenth Doctor said. "The plan's been foiled."

"Yes," the Third Doctor said. "Now you're all going to come back with us and—"

Missy let out an inhuman scream that sounded like a garbled bastardization of the word, " _NO!_ " The Doctors, Masters, and Clara jumped at the sound and turned to her.

Missy whipped her head around to face them, snarling, with the eyes of a madwoman. Gone was the playful twinkle in her eyes and the flirtatious curl of her lip. Missy was furious.

" _I have come so far!_ " Missy screamed, stamping her foot. " _And I am not about to let you lot ruin it!_ "

Missy turned back to the schism as her PDA charged with energy.

The Twelfth Doctor leapt towards her. "Missy, no!"

But he was too late. Missy fired, a bolt of laser hurtling straight towards the Schism as the Young Master neared it.

Before it could reach the Schism, the laser bolt was swallowed by a sudden rip in the air.

Missy stared at the rift, dumbfounded as it remained in the air before her pulsating with temporal energy. The rest of the group had similar looks on their faces.

Missy let her arms drop to her sides, defeated. "What?" she said. "I don't…"

"Yes, that's the other problem at hand," the Eighth Doctor said. "The Master used the Tear of Temos to bring his – er, her different selves together, but it also caused five new tears to open up in spacetime. That's where we came from."

" _Five_ tears?" the Twelfth Doctor said, his eyes wide. He turned to Missy with furrowed brow. "You really are an idiot, aren't you?"

She turned to him. "Look who's talking, chief."

"So, yeah," the Tenth Doctor said. "Universe in danger is tearing itself apart. What do we do?"

"Could there be a way to reverse the Tear's polarity somehow?" the Third Doctor ventured.

"Reverse the polarity…" the War Doctor chided. "Is that your answer for everything?"

"And what would be _your_ suggestion?" the Tenth Doctor asked him. "Shooting it?"

"No, I think Big Nose is onto something," the Twelfth Doctor said, scratching at his head. The Third Doctor glared at him while self-consciously touching his own nose.

"The Master should know some way to fix it, shouldn't he?" Clara asked.

"Don't assume," the Fifth Doctor said. "The Master is good at making messes, but he is not so good at cleaning them up."

The Twelfth Doctor's eyes darted around the ledge, searching for clues. They landed on Missy, who currently watching her child self stare into the Untempered Schism, a forlorn look on her face. The tear continued to pulsate and stretch before her, the sound of crackling escaping its trans-temporal folds.

"We didn't _plan_ to fix this," the Tremas Master said. "If we had our way, we'd be ruling the universe by now."

"Assuming the subterfuge among ourselves wouldn't set back our plans," the Bruce Master said, glaring at the Old, Tremas, and Missy Masters.

The Old Master approached him with a glare. "How many times must I correct you of your erred thoughts, you—"

"Could everyone, please, _shut up_?" the Twelfth Doctor barked. "I am trying to think!"

The party silenced, and the gears clicked into overdrive in the Time Lord's thoughts. Thunder rumbled up ahead. Distantly, he heard the Fifth Doctor mutter, "Do I really sound that vain?"

Just then, the answer hit the Twelfth Doctor like a freight train.

"Oh, idea!" he exclaimed, finger raised. "I have an idea! Everyone take your respective Masters and meet me on Temos."

"Aren't you going to tell us what the plan is?" the Third Doctor asked.

The Twelfth Doctor rushed to him with excited movement. "Would you know yourself to?"

The Tenth Doctor rolled his eyes. "To Temos, everyone."

* * *

Standing by the Tear of Temos, the Twelfth Doctor paced before his five counterparts and Clara. All around him, wind violently kicked at his coat, and lightning cracked overhead in monumental zigzags. Accompanying this was thunder that sounded like a thousand cannons exploding at once.

The Tear itself reacted just as violent. Its lights flashed erratic and bright, and it created its own batch of angry lightning bolts.

The Twelfth Doctor clapped his hands together. "Alright, here's the plan: We're each going to fly our TARDISes into the Tear."

The other Doctors looked at him in confusion. Even Clara seemed to doubt him.

"Oh dear God," the War Doctor said. "This is the regeneration where I finally go completely mental."

"No, listen to me!" the Twelfth Doctor said. "If I'm right – and let's face it, I usually am – if we input the time that all of us were abducted as we fly into the Tear, it should reverse its temporal flow and send all of us – Masters and all – back to our original times, effectively erasing this event from the timestream."

"And do you really think that'll fix these other tears?" the Tenth Doctor asked. "I mean, that plan is—"

"Insane?" the Twelfth Doctor finished. "Bonkers? Bananas? Cockamamie? Why, yes it is. But isn't that what being the Doctor is all about? Always finding the solution to problems in insanity? When the apocalypse rears its ugly head, we ask if it wants a Jelly Baby."

An extra-loud clap of thunder sounded in the sky. The Doctors looked up as a rift began to split open right above them.

"Time's running out, almost literally this time," the Twelfth Doctor said. "I'm not sure if this plan is going to work, but I'm willing to try it if that means saving the universe. And I hope that I know myself well enough that you'll all join."

Clara stepped up to stand beside her Doctor. "I don't know if my vote means anything, but I'm in."

The Doctor smiled at her, and Clara smiled back.

"I'm also in," the War Doctor said.

"Me too," the Fifth Doctor said.

"Aye," the Third Doctor said.

"Let's go save the universe," the Eighth Doctor said.

" _Allons-y_ ," the Tenth Doctor said.

The Twelfth Doctor nodded at his counterparts. "Right then," he said. "Into the abyss."

The Doctors split up, each entering their own TARDIS as the storm raged on Temos. Clara followed her Doctor into his police box, where Missy was already waiting there, handcuffed to a railing.

"Took you long enough," she said. "Spent enough time gazing at yourself, did you?"

"Shut up," the Doctor said. He went straight to the TARDIS console and clicked on the intercom. "Is everyone in position?"

The intercom sprang to life with a chorus of "Ready"s and "All sets"s.

"Good," the Twelfth Doctor said. "Once we're in the Tear, wait for my signal to dematerialise. We have to do it all at once or this may not work."

The Doctor gripped at a steering wheel-like device. "Alright everyone," he said. "Charge."

He spun the wheel, and the TARDIS lifted into the air. It spun there for a second until the Doctor pushed forward on the wheel and launched the time machine forward into the rift.

The TARDIS vibrated with great intensity as it entered the Tear, and everything seemed blurry for the longest time inside the time machine. Then, light – seemingly from nowhere – shone into the TARDIS, illuminating the interior with blinding whiteness.

"Doctor," Missy suddenly said. "For what it's worth, I did it for you. All of this."

The Doctor ignored her and clicked on the intercom. "Alright, me's. Input your time codes now."

The Doctor punched a few buttons on his console. "On the count of three."

He gripped a lever. Everything was shaking.

"One."

He looked at Clara, who viewed him with expecting wonder.

"Two."

He looked at Missy, who viewed him with sadness and disappointment.

"Three!"

With one great jerk, he pulled down on the lever. The central column rose and fell, its orange light mixing in with the white light of the Tear. The two lights seemed to be fighting for dominance, and they created some sort of rainbow effect within the TARDIS.

Then, everything exploded with brightness.

* * *

From within the TARDIS, the Doctor pulled down on a lever, and the center column rose and fell as the time machine dematerialised with a whirring, groaning sound.

"So, Clara," he said, "what have we learned on this adventure?" His Scottish voice had taken on the mannerisms of a scolding schoolteacher.

Clara rolled her eyes. "Don't correct Edgar Allen Poe on his grammar," she recited.

The Doctor chuckled. "Correct, Ms. Oswald."

"Well I'm sorry," Clara said defensively. "But how was I supposed to know that he had a black hole stuck…"

Her voice trailed off as she stared into space.

The Doctor turned to her, his eyebrows knitted in concern. "Clara? What is it?"

Clara touched her forehead. "I…I just got the weirdest sense of déjà vu. Like…like we've had this conversation before."

"We're time travellers, Clara," the Doctor said. "Déjà vu should be second nature by this point. I get déjà vu so often that I get déjà vu of having déjà vu."

"Yeah," Clara said. "I suppose you're right. And I mean, this isn't the first time you've yelled at me for something I've done wrong, so…"

"I'm not _yelling_ , I'm _correcting_. So you don't make the same mistake twice."

Clara folded her arms and strode to the console, smirking. "M-hm. Did anyone tell you you'd make an _excellent_ teacher?"

"Don't get cheeky." The Doctor chuckled to himself as he clicked a few buttons. "Alright then, Ms. Oswald, why don't we try out a famous author that'll be more your speed?"

He turned to her with a knowing look. "Jane Austen sound good?"

Clara smiled at him. "Lead on, teach."

THE END


End file.
